10,000 Push-ups to Crush Slavery

Sutherland Shire resident Paul Harvey will complete his one-man campaign, "10,000 push-ups to Crush Slavery" on Friday 21st. Over the last 100 days, he has reached 70,000 people, raising awareness about Human Trafficking, Slavery, and Forced Prostitution. Sign the petition at http://j.mp/slaverypetition

"When I learned that there are 27 million slaves in the world, it made me sick to my stomach. Children are worked to death by age 14 picking some of the cocoa that goes into the chocolate we eat. Girls as young as 6 are sold into forced prostitution and internet porn. There's whole villages trapped in generations of debt bondage, forced to break rocks in wretched conditions, with no chance of escape. Disposable children thrown overboard with rocks around their ankles to untie fishing nets. The whole thing makes me flaming mad. We simply cannot let this obscene injustice continue."

"This issue has really caught me by the heart-strings, and I've gone all out to make my campaign as big as one bloke can make it. I made signs, flyers, a website, a Facebook cause, a petition, and I've printed a whole range of custom-designed clothing that I've made available online, so now I'm a human billboard for the cause."

So what does he want from us? Nothing but spreading the word. "This needs more than just once-off sponsorship donations. It needs a change in public opinion. And you can do that by joining my Facebook cause, signing the petition, and sharing it with all your friends."

"I may be just a regular Dad from the Shire, just another cog in a big city bank, but I believe that I can make a difference, even if I do all 10,000 push-ups on my own."

You can watch or join Paul doing his final set of "push-ups in a suit" at 1pm Friday 21st, near the MLC Centre in Martin Place, Sydney. You can track his progress, sign the petition, and learn more about the issue at http://www.crushslavery.com.

NOTES TO EDITORS

In 2005, the International Labour Organization [1] estimated a global annual profit of US$ 44.3 billion from all forms of slavery, and $33.9 billion from commercial sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable illegal industry in the world. [2]

With a profit margin of 70% or higher, virtually unlimited demand, and desperate poverty producing an unlimited supply of goods that virtually ship themselves "if you kick 'em hard enough" - it's a business model that many find simply too good to refuse.

Siddharth Kara's [3] 2006 research revealed that you can purchase a trafficked girl in Western Europe for an average of US $4 800 (a stunner of course, and already "broken-in" so you'll get no trouble), then you can earn an average of US $10 570/month by renting out her body. In some countries you can buy a slave for as little as $5. People have become as disposable as paper cups.

And this is not just restricted to a few undeveloped countries. UNODC reports that people are trafficked from 127 countries, to be exploited in 137 countries, including Australia.

But the good news is that we can eradicate slavery in our lifetime, if we all do our part. The world's leading expert on slavery, Dr Kevin Bales [4], outlined a comprehensive 25-year plan [5] to abolish slavery in his book "Ending Slavery". The book outlines hundreds of practical actions we can make at a personal, business, community & government level.